Consumer Guide Album

Dramarama: Hi-Fi Sci-Fi [Chameleon, 1993]
Although "Incredible" uses the present tense to hail the perfect love of younger days--she smokes his brand of cigs and runs up a $12.37 electric bill ("our great expense") because (the historicizing clincher) she never turns off the radio--the bloody snot and lost year of "Prayer" and "I Don't Feel Like Doing Drugs" suggest a maturity move. What's confusing, and a stroke, is that with Clem Burke pounding the skins and the band mixing and matching, it rocks louder, harder, and faster than anything they've done since going pro--or ever. Assuming the content is autobiographical, which given John Easdale's gift for covering his tracks is only a conceit, this makes it the best just-say-no advert since "Tonight's the Night." Neil's, not Rod's, and you'd best believe pop polymath Easdale knows and admires both but prefers to evoke Neil, whose sister does a backup turn. He also lifts "Prayer" from "Search and Destroy." A−